ABOUT ELLIE JAMES
Most people who know
Ellie think she’s your nice, ordinary wife and mom of two little kids. They see
someone who does all that normal stuff, like grocery shopping, walking the
dogs, going to baseball games, and somehow always forgetting to get the laundry
done. What they don't know is that more often than not, this LSU J-School alum
is somewhere far, far away, deeply embroiled in solving a riddle or puzzle or
crime, testing the limits of possibility, exploring the unexplained, and
holding her breath while two people fall in love.
Regardless of which world
Ellie’s in, she loves rain and wind and thunder and lightning; the first warm
kiss of spring and the first cool whisper of fall; family, friends, and
animals; dreams and happy endings; Lost and Fringe; Arcade Fire and Dave
Matthews, and last but not least…warm gooey chocolate chip cookies.
You can follow Ellie on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Midnight-Dragonfly-Books-by-Ellie-James/154988421236309
ABOUT THE BOOK
 |
| BUY THE BOOK HERE |
Broken Illusions
Griffin Teen
May, 2012
ISBN:
978-0-312-64703-2
Glimpses.
That’s all they are. Shadowy premonitions flickering through sixteen year old
psychic Trinity Monsour’s dreams. Some terrify: a girl screaming, a knife
lifting, a body in the grass. But others--the dark, tortured eyes and the
shattering kiss, the promise of forever--whisper to her soul.
They
come without warning. They come without detail.
But
they always mean the same thing: The clock is ticking, and only Trinity can
stop it.
“ ...the
cliffhangers at the end of each chapter will keep readers turning pages. In
addition to the thrill factor, an effective balance of quick dialogue and
occasional text messages with rich descriptions of the gothic New Orleans
setting and Trinity’s visions makes for an absorbing read.
Fans
of paranormal thrillers and romances will find plenty to love in this gripping
series.”
--Kirkus Reviews
Trailer for SHATTERED DREAMS the first book in the Midnight Dragonfly Series
MAUREEN GETS TO KNOW ELLIE JAMES
Hi, Ellie! Thanks for visiting today. Our readers would love to know more about you.... So, what’s your favorite holiday? Easter!
Hi, Ellie! Thanks for visiting today. Our readers would love to know more about you.... So, what’s your favorite holiday? Easter!
What’s your favorite movie
of all time? Raiders of the Lost Ark
Where do you most like to
read and how often? On the sofa, every
evening.
What’s your favorite kind of
story to get lost in? Anything with romance and
danger!
What’s the first book you
remember reading? Where the Wild Things Are
What really scares you? Dark places
Do you believe in ghosts? Absolutely.
Where in the world would you
most like to visit? Athens, Greece
What’s next for you as an
author? Book 3 in the Midnight
Dragonfly series, Fragile Darkness.
Do shapeshifters exist? Anything is possible.
What’s your favorite
hobby? Searching for the perfect
chocolate chip cookie recipe.
What’s your favorite fairy
tale? Beauty and the Beast
What’s the best vacation
you’ve ever been on? 10-day trip to Maui!
Cats or dogs? Cats
Hiking boots or high heels? Hiking boots.
What’s your favorite cartoon
character? Is Tinkerbell a cartoon
character?
Totally. What hidden talents do you
have? Tying a knot in a cherry
stem with only my tongue J
Seriously? What turns you off like
nothing else? Bad breath.
Would you rather sky dive or
scuba dive? Scuba dive
What sound or noise do you
love? Thunderstorms
What book would you want
with you if you were stranded on a desert island? The Stand
Do you write while listening
to music? If so what kind? ALWAYS! My music matches my character and the
situation. For YA, I’ve leaned heavily on Arcade Fire, Evanescence, Muse, Gaga,
and all things dubstep!
What’s your favorite kind of
cheese? Smoky cheddar.
Vanilla or chocolate? Chocolate, the darker the better. The
chili or pepper variety is better still.
Yum! What was the first story you
remember writing? Monster Falls
in Love--I still have it!!! Pretty sure I’ll be blogging bout it VERY soon ☺
Who’s your favorite
villain? Ben Linus from
LOST!!! (Runner up: The Grinch!)
What was your first
boyfriend’s name? Would you want to meet him again? Burke. Ummm….no.
That was kindergarten. My first “going together” boyfriend was Joey, and
I have met him again, on Facebook! Kinda funny ☺
If you couldn’t be a writer
anymore, what profession would you take up? Editing.
Is Elvis really dead? By this point, probably. In the
70s…anything is possible!
What’s the first thing you
do when you finish writing a book? Breathe. No, seriously…breathe ☺ Then
I go shopping. BIG fan of retail therapy!
If you could interview one
person (and it doesn’t have to be a writer) who would it be? JJ Abrams.
What’s your favorite
dessert? Anything chocolate
If you were given a chance
to travel to the past where would you go and why? Atlantis, to see what it
was really like, and what really happened.
What do you like on your
burger? (and do you take your burger veggie or beefy?) Beef, veggie or black
bean: I like them all three. Mayo, mustard, lots of pickles, onion, lettuce and
cheese. Yum. With a huge side of onion rings. Double yum.
What question are you never
asked in interviews, but wish you were?
How is my protagonist like and different from me, or what’s one thing
my protagonist has done, that *I* would never do.
What do you do to unwind and
relax? Run, bike, take the dog
for a walk, and bake. Lots and lots of baking.
Strawberry daiquiri or a
beer? Pina colada
Do you believe in alien
abductions? Not only do I believe, but I have this feeling that…nah, never
mind. Shouldn’t go there.
Ha! Vampires or werewolves? Werewolves
What was your favorite
subject in school and why? Psychology: human behavior is far stranger than
fiction.
Do you remember your grade
one teacher’s name? Mrs. Woods.
Who was your first best
friend? Are you still in touch? Debbie…not
in touch personally, but our moms still are, so I know what she’s up to. My
next best friend…Karen…I recently found on Facebook, and while we both live
over 500 miles away from where we grew up, we somehow ended up only 15 miles
from each other!
It's fate! Did you belong to a clique
in high school? Which one of the standard high school stereotypes did you best
fit in to? I more or less
hovered on the fringes of several cliques. One of my best friends was a
cheerleader, but I wasn’t. Another best friend was a choir girl…but I wasn’t.
Yet another friend was band, but, you guessed it, I wasn’t. I was more of this
bookworm jock (Cross Country and Track) hybrid ☺
What is your favorite
tradition from your childhood that you would love to pass on or did pass on to
your children? Easter egg
hunts!
Salsa or guacamole? Guacamole!
Which of your characters
would you most/least to invite to dinner, and why? Most invite: Julian Delacroix, my guru of all things
metaphysical. He’s a man of possibility. He believes there are no limits, that
our minds are capable of far greater than we know. Least invite: Dylan Fourcade, because I’d get myself in
serious trouble ;)
Do you read reviews of your
books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your
writing? Ohhhhhh, loaded
question. Writing is so solitary. We spend gobs and tons of times by ourselves,
in our own little worlds. Stumbling across a positive review can be the most
amazing shot in the arm, it’s like a bright ray of sunshine to discover that
you’ve connected with a reader. However, I rarely go looking anymore, because
there are two sides to every coin, and no matter how prepared you think you are
for the other side of the coin, negativity can be damaging, at least for me. I
love learning ways to improve my craft, but I’ve found negative zaps of energy
don’t do me any good. (My muse can be very sensitive to being told she sucks. I
prefer to keep her happy, rather than sending her on strike ;)
What soundtrack or playlist
do you recommend for your current release? Funeral by Arcade Fire
Tea or Coffee? And how do
you take it? Coffee, with
enough milk to turn it the color of pecans, with two teaspoons of Raw Sugar ☺
(Yes, I’m a southern girl!)
What does it mean to love
someone? To be so connected to
someone that you breathe the same breath. That you hurt when they hurt. That
you’d reach over to put their oxygen mask on them before putting on your own.
That you’d learn to not only love baseball, but read (and understand) box
scores ☺
What color would you make
the sky if it wasn’t going to be blue anymore and why? Lavender! I am an LSU girl, and we do bleed purple and all, but the
real reason is because lavender is a beautiful soothing color that wouldn’t
hurt to look at all the time!
What would you say is your
most interesting quirk? I
eat my food one item at a time--and I color code my closet!
What’s your idea of a
perfect Sunday afternoon? Ice cream sundaes at a baseball game, 75 degrees,
bright blue sky, with a cool soft breeze.
What’s your favorite kid
joke? What's worse than
biting into an apple and finding a worm?
Biting into an apple and
finding half a worm.
What was your favorite book when you were twelve?
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell. Love, love, loved this book! My mother was a librarian, so she was always supplying me with classic, award winning children’s literature. Island worked for me on every level. still get a warm feeling inside when I think about it!
ELLIE ASKS:
BOOK GIVEAWAY:
Ellie will give away a signed copy of her current release, Broken Illusions to a lucky commenter!
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell. Love, love, loved this book! My mother was a librarian, so she was always supplying me with classic, award winning children’s literature. Island worked for me on every level. still get a warm feeling inside when I think about it!
ELLIE ASKS:
What does love mean to
YOU, or what is the appeal of the vampire/shape-shifter/immortal archetype?
BOOK GIVEAWAY:
Ellie will give away a signed copy of her current release, Broken Illusions to a lucky commenter!
Note: Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed
to North America addresses only unless specifically mentioned in the post. Odds
of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Winners of drawings are
responsible for checking this site in a timely manner. If prizes are not
claimed in a timely manner, the author may not have a prize available. Get
Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the
listed prize. GLIAS does not automatically pass email addresses to guest
authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address.
KEEP TRACK OF ELLIE JAMES HERE:
Website: www.elliejames.net
Twitter: @elliejamesmdb
Great interview, Maureen and Ellie! Broken Illusions sounds like a fascinating read.
ReplyDeleteI've always been curious about Atlantis myself, Ellie. But I don't think I'd have wanted to have been there to see what happened. :)
I had forgotten about Island of the Blue Dolphin! I bet I read that book ten times myself.
Have a great Monday!
Hi Maureen and Ellie!
ReplyDeleteBroken Illusions sounds awesome! As does the entire Midnight Dragonfly Series. It is already on my list to read, I just need to start making my way through my list. I'm way behind on reading. But I devour anything with psychics, ghosts or witches.
I color code my closet also, and by sleeve length within the color. :-)
I love your comment that love is putting on someone else's oxygen mask before your own. From a paranormal ghost book aspect, I would say for me, Love is enabling someone to cross over and be happy, when you know you must remain behind and carry on without that person.
Thanks for letting us get to know you a bit better!
You raise a good point, Susan, about not wanting to be in Atlantis at the end. Given that, I'm guessing what I'd really like is to time travel there for a few weeks, then zip myself out of Dodge before all he!! breaks loose :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, I really should go back and read Island. What I remember is crying :)
Another book I remembered this weekend was Forever by Judy Blume, but I was older than 12 when I read that one. And yup, it TOTALLY ruined the name Ralph for me!!!
Beth....um...yeah. I do the sleeve length within color, too. People laugh at me, but seriously, how do you find anything if you don't do that!?!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments about Broken! Each book in the Midnight Dragonfly series is quite different, as my protagonist Trinity learns and grows, the process I refer to as "becoming." We spend so much of our teens and twenties becoming who we're going to become. Change goes hand in hand with that!! Broken was a very special book to me. I sought to portray relationships as honestly as possible, particularly when it comes to Trinity and her boyfriend. It's HARD being a teenager now, with lots of pressures and considerations that didn't exist even ten years ago. I watch my nieces struggle with this and really feel for them. Everything is so COMPLICATED!
Also loved your comment about crossing over. I could have benefited from chatting with you while writing Fragile Darkness!!!!
Take care!
Great interview. Raidders of the Lost Ark is one of my faves too. Although I'm partial to Temples of Doom. I can't wait to read Broken Illusions. Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteNow for the question. What's appealing about vamps? I think that what attracts me the most about vamps is their immortality. And the fact that usually they're depicted as Greek Gods and Goddesses, in the flesh, forever walking around in the perfect body. Who wouldn't want that for eternity? I do understand that living forever could get tiresome, but to be able to live through all that history would be far too enticing for me.
molly(dot)frenzel(at)gmail(dot)com
Very fun interview. The appeal about these characters are that they're dangerous and can live forever, so they don't really worry about the consequences.
ReplyDeletebn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
What a great interview, Ellie.
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't swing by on Monday...but it was great finding out more about you!
Woo Hoo on the release!
~Angi
Very fun interview! I'd want to see Atlantis, too. But would you need scuba gear to do it?
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with Broken Illusions!
~Lea